Tina Turner Credits Princess Beatrice for Her Coming to Terms With Dyslexia

AceShowbiz –Tina Turner has praised Britain’s Princess Beatrice for helping her come to terms with her dyslexia.

The legendary diva struggled at school before finding her calling in music, and was left feeling ashamed as she didn’t know why she could not keep up with her fellow pupils.

The 79-year-old realised she had dyslexia after the royal went public with her diagnosis in 2005 and spoke about her learning difficulties in interviews.

“I finally got over my lifelong sense of inadequacy when Princess Beatrice, Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter discussed her dyslexia in a number of interviews,” Tina writes in a passage of her new memoir, reports the Daily Star. “She said she wasn’t able to count and had a hard time learning how to read. She could have been describing me. For the first time, I truly understood what my problem was and felt better about myself.”

Describing the trauma of her time at school, the Simply the Best singer explains, “I was not a good student, so I lived in fear of being called to the blackboard. One day a teacher told me to come up with the answer to an arithmetic problem. Panic set in. Not that I would have said the word ’embarrassed’ – I would have said ‘ashamed’ – ashamed that I was standing in front of all the other kids, failing with numbers blurring in front of my eyes because of tears.”

In addition to her memoir, Tina’s life is also the basis for a musical, which opened to rave reviews in London in April, and transfers to Broadway next year.